Whoopi Goldberg Mocks Conservatives for Taylor Swift Conspiracy Theory

Whoppi Goldberg has slammed the conspiracy theory put forth by Fox News host Jesse Watters that Taylor Swift could be "a front for a covert political agenda."

On Tuesday, Watters suggested that the pop superstar could be working for the Pentagon as a "psyop"—an agent used to convey selected information, such as propaganda, to influence people's thinking and behavior—during his eponymous show. To try and explain how Swift has become such a success, he told viewers that "around four years ago, the Pentagon's psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting."

Watters aired a clip that featured a woman talking about recruiting the singer as an "asset" to sway public opinion at a NATO event. The host said he was worried about this because Swift endorsed President Joe Biden and encouraged her fans to vote.

Goldberg used an episode of The View on January 11 to criticize Fox News for perpetuating such a conspiracy theory. Newsweek contacted Fox News and representatives for Goldberg and Swift via email for comment Friday.

"There are real issues impacting millions of Americans—reproductive rights, racism, healthcare cost, income disparity, gun violence," the Oscar-winning actor said before showing the clip of Watters.

Watters said in the news segment: "Have you ever wondered why or how [Swift] blew up like this? Well, around four years ago, the Pentagon's Psychological Operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting. What kind of asset? A psyop for combatting online misinformation." He added that the show did not have any evidence for this.

Watters cited Swift encouraging her fans to vote as part of the theory. In 2020, the singer urged fans to sign up to vote, prompting record-breaking registrations.

"Hundreds of thousands of young Taylor Swift fans all of a sudden registered to vote," he said. "I wonder who got to her, from the White House or from wherever?"

Goldberg made her feelings known about Watters and his unfounded theory.

"When we talk about snowflakes—you people worry about the weirdest stuff," she said. "She got people to go out and vote, including probably all kinds of people that you'd rather not have voting. If she can get people to do that, why would you say that was a bad thing or talk about it like you're disparaging it? What kind of baloney is that?"

Fellow host Sunny Hostin shared her theory that since Swift started her career in country music, conservatives thought she would align with their political ideals but have since been turned off by her support for more liberal-leaning causes.

"I think the Jesse Watters of the world thought that she was their princess," Hostin said. "She was in support of March for Our Lives against gun violence, she supported the LGBTQ community in her music videos, and then [she's] pro-choice, and then she said [go] vote. They picked the wrong princess."

Goldberg added: "I'm tired of dumb people. I'm just, I'm tired of it. I can't handle it."

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh rubbished Watters' theory—and used the opportunity to ask Congress to grant the administration its supplemental budget request.

Singh referenced some of Swift's big hits by saying in a statement to Politico, "as for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off."

Singh said: "But that does highlight that we still need Congress to approve our supplemental budget request as Swift-ly as possible so we can be out of the woods with potential fiscal concerns."

The video Watters cited was from a NATO-organized cyber security conference in 2019, which Watters either neglected to disclose or was unaware of. The speaker was Alicia Marie Bargar, a research engineer at Johns Hopkins University at the time.

Bargar talked about her studies on the propagation of false information on the Internet, ranging from health conspiracies to ISIS, and how to identify and counter it.